Dua Lipa wins copyright lawsuit over Levitating

Dua Lipa has gained the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused her of copying her hit single Levitating from two different songs.

The star was sued in 2022 by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who accused her of plagiarising their 1979 disco monitor Wiggle and Giggle All Night time and 1980’s Don Diablo.

On Thursday, US Decide Katherine Polk Failla dominated that the songs solely had generic similarities, together with non-copyrightable musical components that had additionally beforehand been utilized by Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees of their tune Stayin’ Alive.

It’s the second time that Lipa has gained a plagiarism case over Levitating, which was a world hit in 2020.

She was beforehand sued by Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, who claimed Lipa ripped off the refrain for her tune from their 2015 monitor Dwell Your Life.

Their case was dropped in 2023 after a choose dominated there was no proof that Lipa and her co-writers had “entry” to the sooner tune – a key requirement in any copyright lawsuit.

Nonetheless, she remains to be going through a 3rd authorized problem over the tune, from musician Bosko Kante – a featured artist on Levitating, who sang vocals by a chat field.

He sued in 2023, saying his contribution had been used on remixes of the tune with out permission.

Kante is in search of damages of at the very least $2m (£1.5m) plus curiosity, in addition to earnings from the remixes, which he estimated as being at the very least $20m (£15m).

Brown and Linzer’s case alleged that Lipa stole the opening melody of Levitating, the place she sings: “When you wanna run away with me, I do know a galaxy and I can take you for a trip.“

They known as the melody and phrasing a “duplicate” of their very own songs.

However Decide Failla wrote that the weather have been too widespread to be protected by legislation.

“The courtroom finds {that a} musical type, outlined by plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco really feel,’ and a musical perform, outlined by plaintiffs to incorporate ‘leisure and dancing,’ can not probably be protectable,” the choose wrote.

“To carry in any other case can be to fully foreclose the additional growth of music in that style or for that goal.”

By coincidence, the ruling got here on the fifth anniversary of Levitating’s launch, initially as an album monitor on Lipa’s award-winning album Future Nostalgia.

In a press release to music trade publication Billboard, attorneys for Brown and Linzer stated they “respectfully disagreed” with the choice and would file an enchantment.

The BBC has contacted Dua Lipa for a response.